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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The next day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Cristoval did not saunter into the recovery stable as he had before. It was late evening, but not night yet. He had run out of things to do in his cramped cubby-hole ‘the great doctor’ called housing, so he had come down early today. This, however, was not why he was creeping about. He was creeping about because he did not particularly feel like dealing with the Alva woman today. His body had taken enough of a beating the day before.

Regardless, when he deemed it safe, he stepped into the stables and peered about. He wanted to know if someone was in there before he got to working with his animal. The cage in the back of the room caught his eye as he recalled the events of yesterday. Entirely driven by curiosity, Cristoval walked towards the cage, wondering if she was even awake…

It was a woman, another woman on the island of scientists. Cristoval couldn’t believe his luck. Still, he needed to keep fairly neutral while he figured her out, no need to act as he did with Alva if this was a more fun-loving non-hell spawn type woman. Cristoval was excited, at this rate he would definitely have a wife here on the island sometime within the year.

“Good evening Señora.” Cristoval greeted plainly. He began walking his way towards the woman to introduce himself. He didn’t pay much attention to what he was passing, or what the woman seemed to have been taking care of.

Cristoval had had enough time, just walking toward the woman, to get a good sense of what not to do.

“Yes, I am here to take care of a large female hyena. My name is Doctor Cristoval Sebastian Ramos Jiveres the second…” A small warning flag went up in his head, something was telling him we was acting too forward with this woman, “but that’s a bit cumbersome, so you may call me simply Dr. Ramos, or, if I may be so bold, Cris.” Mentioning his shortest of titles, he didn’t back it with his usual bravado; instead he seemed simply hopeful that they could be so familiar.

“I was getting restless in my residence, so I came down earlier than I usually do, but now I am hesitant to disrupt my daily routine.” Cristoval rubbed his sleeved arm and looked slightly down in mock absence, before – again purely acting- he realized his intrusion. “Of course, if I’m disrupting yours, I’ll be on my way, and we can speak another time.”

In his experience, the shy are put off by the confident, and this woman was, while sociable, put off by his initial forwardness. It interested him that The woman would go about her work, especially recovery stable work, in a dress. For all his objectifying of women, he never understood why they would put themselves through so much to appear ‘beautiful’ and follow ‘conventions’ in some the least appropriate situations.

Cris Chuckled lightly, “What an amusing coincidence.” He saw Christine’s reaction to the mention of the hyena, so he decided to talk more about her. “She isn’t much more than a large dog. Though by all outward appearance she may look male, when she first came here she had had a miscarriage. This, and some other things I had noticed, told me she was… a she. Well… I guess a miscarriage would make it pretty obvious, but Moreau wasn’t sure what had happened until I had a look.”

“At first I came here to learn from Dr. Moreau, but…” Cristoval paused, and his face scrunched a bit, as if he didn’t really want to say what he was about to say. In truth, however, he would love to rand on and on at his disappointment in the man’s character, “Well when I first saw him he was… well doing something illicit… I’d prefer not to mention what is was… and later, I saw him just toting about an injured Hyena, my Salmacis, muttering about how it was ruined, utter garbage I think he said,” actually Moreau had been furious at his delivery help, calling them garbage, and in his own way sad for the creature, but a kind brave man needs a character foil, and Moreau was the only other man he’s seen on the island other than his crew, which actually made him begin to wonder…

“He was going to let the poor thing die, simply because he didn’t understand what her problem was. He just seems so barbaric, like the creatures he works on are just a project, even though he thinks he’s making them human.” Cristoval was certain that this would get him closer to Christine, if not repel her from Alphonse. And as long as it accomplished one of the two, it was a step in the right direction. He hoped, however, that it wouldn’t be too easy. In the meantime, Cristoval maintained a concerned appearance as he watched for Christine’s reaction.

“I don’t know,” Cristoval sighed, “I just don’t know. I have only my own experiences to judge from, perhaps he acts differently in front of different people, or perhaps he has something against certain animals. I mean the rules he’s set for them are terribly tortuous for the carnivores. A creature grown on meat and bone has a hard time finding appropriate nourishment in salads. He seemed to be ready to chuck poor Salmacis in the meat grinder, thinking she was inadequate for his experimentations." Cristoval made some gestures, indicating he was thinking hard about the moment, trying his best to look at it from an objective viewpoint.

"I’ll have to talk to him. I guess it was foolish of me to judge the man in his agitated state, people deal with loss in different ways…” Cristoval paused in though. He needed something to pin on Alphonse, something glairing, and then he remembered Moreau's name for the hyena, it seemed easy to interpret negatively.

“Now that I think of it though, do you know what he said the name he gave her, Salmacis, comes from?”

Cristoval almost ignored her first response to further drive home his horrific story, “In Greek mythology, the son of Hermes, the messenger, and Aphrodite, the beautiful, was named Hermaphroditus, and was raised by nymphs for some reason.” Cristoval told the story animatedly, gesturing to emphasise actions and mood, ”One day he wanted to go and visit a city of men, so he left the nymphs. On his way he found a river that was inhabited by a water spirit named Salmacis. When she saw him, Salmacis fell immediately in love, so she rose from the waters and greeted Hermaphroditus beginning a flirtatious conversation. Hermaphroditus had grown up with nymphs, so talk of… romance confused him, so he began to back away. Afraid she would lose him, she said she would leave him to his business, and sank back into the waters. When Hermaphroditus went to bathe in the waters, Salmacis leapt from them, pulled Hermaphroditus into a loving embrace, wishing to the gods that they would never part. So the gods granted this wish, and Salmacis and Hermaphroditus became Hermaphrodite, a person of indeterminate gender.” Finished with the story, Cristoval waited for Chris to form her own conclusions.